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reform of the date of Easter
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{{Short description|Proposals to change the festival date}}{{lead too short|date=March 2022}}Reform of the date of Easter refers to proposals to change the date for the annual celebration of Easter. These proposals include setting a fixed date or agreeing between Eastern and Western Christendom a common basis for calculating the date of Easter so that all Christians celebrate the Festival on the same day. As of 2023, no such agreement has been reached.- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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Description
A reform of the date of Easter has been proposed several times because the current system for determining the date of Easter is seen as presenting two significant problems:- Its date varies from year to year. It can fall on up to 35 days in March and April of the respective calendar. While many Christians do not consider this to be a problem, it can cause frequent difficulties of co-ordination with civil calendars, for example academic terms. Many countries have public holidays around Easter weekend or tied to the date of Easter but spread from February to June, such as Shrove Tuesday or Ascension and Pentecost.
- Many Eastern churches calculate the date of Easter using the Julian calendar, whereas some Eastern churches use the Revised Julian calendar and all Western churches and civil authorities have adopted the Gregorian reforms for all calendrical purposes. Hence in most years, Easter is celebrated on a later date in the East than in the West.
- on a Sunday,
- after the nominal Northward equinox â fixed on 21 March in the Gregorian calendar, that is the start of spring in the Northern and of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere â,
- after the first ecclesiastical full moon of the astronomic season.
- so that Annunciation â celebrated 25 March, 9 months before Christmas â does not fall on any day from the Sunday before Easter to the Sunday after,
- on or after the 14th day of the lunar month of Nisan,
- not before Jewish Pesach â Easter is after Christian Passover by definition.
Fixed date
It has been proposed that the first problem could be resolved by making Easter occur on a date fixed relative to the western Gregorian calendar every year, or alternatively on a Sunday within a fixed range of seven or eight dates. While tying Easter to one fixed date would serve to underline the belief that it commemorates an actual historical event, without an accompanying calendar reform that changes the pattern of the days of the week (itself a subject of religious controversy) or adopted a leap week, it would also break the tradition of Easter always being on a Sunday, established since the 2nd century and by now deeply embedded in the liturgical practice and theological understanding of almost all Christian denominations.The Second Vatican Council agreed in 1963 to accept a fixed Sunday in the Gregorian calendar as the date for Easter as long as other Christian churches agreed on it as well. They also agreed in principle to adopt a civil calendar reform as long as there were never any days outside the cycle of seven days per week.{{citation| title = Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium | editor = Pope Paul VI | editor-link = Pope Paul VI | date = 4 December 1963 | chapter-url =weblink | chapter = Appendix}}In 1977, some Eastern Orthodox representatives objected to separating the date of Easter from lunar phases.WEB,weblink Ukrainian Catholic University Organizes Seminar on Easter Date, The Montanists, a 5th-century sect, celebrated Easter on the Sunday following April 6 (in the Julian calendar).BOOK, Sozomen, Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History: A History of the Church : in Nine Books, from A.D. 324 to A.D. 440 : a New Translation from the Greek, with a Memoir of the Author,weblink 1846, Bagster, 353, This is equivalent to the Sunday closest to April 9. The April 6 date was apparently arrived at because it was equivalent to the 14th of the month of Artemisios in an earlier calendar used in the area, hence, the 14th of the first month of spring.BOOK, Talley, Thomas J, Afterthoughts on The Origins of the Liturgical Year, Western Plainchant in the First Millennium: Studies in the Medieval Liturgy and Its Music, 1â10, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003, Sean Gallagher, etal,weblink 9780754603894, The two most widespread proposals for fixing the date of Easter would set it on either the second Sunday in April (8 to 14, week 14 or 15), or the Sunday after the second Saturday in April (9 to 15). They only differ in years with dominical letter G or AG where 1 April is a Sunday. In both schemes, account has been taken of the fact thatâin spite of the many difficulties in establishing the dates of the historical events involvedâmany scholars attribute a high degree of probability to Friday 7 April 30, as the date of the crucifixion of Jesus, which would make 9 April the date of the Resurrection. Another date which is supported by many scholars is 3 April 33,JOURNAL, Schaefer, B. E., 1990, Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 31, 1, 53â67, 1990QJRAS..31...53S,- JOURNAL, Humphreys, Colin J., Waddington, W. G., Dating the Crucifixion, Nature, 306, 5945, 1983, 743â746, 0028-0836, 10.1038/306743a0, Colin Humphreys, 1983Natur.306..743H, 4360560,
- WEB, The Date of the Crucifixion, Humphreys, Colin J., Waddington, W. G., Colin Humphreys, Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, 37, March 1985, 2016-01-24,weblink
- BOOK, Humphreys, Colin J., Colin Humphreys, The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus,weblink 2011, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-73200-0, 193, making 5 April the date of the Resurrection.
Dominical letter AG | > | Dominical letter A | > | Dominical letter BA | > | Dominical letter B | > | Dominical letter CB | > | C | Dominical letter DC | > | Dominical letter D | > | Dominical letter ED | > | Dominical letter E | > | Dominical letter FE | > | Dominical letter F | > | Dominical letter GF | > | G |
22 | colspan=2 | 24 | title="Annunciation" {{no2|25}}!rowspan=2 title="Q1-W13, M03-W4"| W12 !rowspan=3 scope=rowgroup| March |
25}} | colspan=2 | 27 | 28 |
29 | colspan=2 | 31 | 01!rowspan=2 title="Q1-W13, M04-W1"| W13 |
02 | colspan=2 | | 04 | !rowspan=8 scope=rowgroup| April |
04}} | colspan=2 title="Sym454; historical date if in year 33" {{proprietary | 05}} > | 06}} | colspan=2 title="Pepuzite, Sym454" {{proprietary | 08}}!rowspan=2 title="Q2-W01, M04-W2"| W14 |
08}} | colspan=2 title="in all major proposals; historical date if in year 30" {{yes | 09}} > | 10}} | title="in all major proposals" {{yes|11}} | }} |
}} | 11}} | colspan=2 title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday, Pepuzite" {{yes | 13}} | colspan=2 title="2nd April Sunday, Sunday after 2nd April Saturday" {{yes | 15}}!rowspan=2 title="Q2-W02, M04-W3"| W15 |
15}} | colspan=2 {{proprietary | 17}} | {{proprietary|18}} |
19 | colspan=2 | 21 | 22!rowspan=2 title="Q2-W03, M04-W4"| W16 |
23 | colspan=2 | | 25 |
Unified date
Proposals to resolve the second problem have made greater progress, but they are yet to be adopted.{{Table of dates of Easter|format=dmy|min=2001|max=2025}}1923 proposal
An astronomical rule for Easter was proposed by the 1923 Pan-Orthodox Congress of Constantinople that also proposed the Revised Julian calendar: Easter was to be the Sunday after the midnight-to-midnight day at the meridian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (35° 13â² 47.2â³ E or UT + 2h 20m 55s for the small dome) during which the first full moon after the vernal equinox occurs.JOURNAL, Milankovitch, M., Das Ende des julianischen Kalenders und der neue Kalender der orientalischen Kirchen, Astronomische Nachrichten, 220, 23, 1923, 379â384, 0004-6337, 10.1002/asna.19232202303, de, 1924AN....220..379M, JOURNAL, The new calendar of the eastern churches, Shields, Miriam Nancy, Popular Astronomy, 32, 407, 1924, 1924PA.....32..407S, This is a translation of Milankovitch, 1923, Although the instant of the full moon must occur after the instant of the vernal equinox, it may occur on the same day. If the full moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. This proposed astronomical rule was rejected by all Orthodox churches and was never considered by any Western church.1997 proposal
The World Council of Churches (WCC) proposed a reform of the method of determining the date of Easter at a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997:WEB,weblink Towards a Common Date of Easter - World Council of Churches/Middle East Council of Churches Consultation Aleppo, Syria, March 5â10, 1997, World Council of Churches, 10 March 1997, 13 April 2015, 20 June 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170620205601weblink">weblink dead, Easter would be defined as the first Sunday following the first astronomical full moon following the astronomical vernal equinox, as determined from the meridian of Jerusalem.WEB, World Council of Churches Press Release: THE DATE OF EASTER: SCIENCE OFFERS SOLUTION TO ANCIENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEM,weblink 24 March 1997,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120626033549weblink">weblink 2012-06-26, The reform would have been implemented starting in 2001, since in that year the Eastern and Western dates of Easter would coincide.This reform has not been implemented. It would have relied mainly on the co-operation of the Eastern Orthodox Church, since the date of Easter would change for them immediately; whereas for the Western churches, the new system would not differ from that currently in use until 2019. However, Eastern Orthodox support was not forthcoming, and the reform failed.WEB, Luke Luhl, The Proposal for a Common Date to Celebrate Pascha and Easter,weblink Orthodox Christian Information Center, 1997, The much greater impact that this reform would have had on the Eastern churches in comparison with those of the West led some Orthodox to suspect that the WCC's decision was an attempt by the West to impose its viewpoint unilaterally on the rest of the world under the guise of ecumenism. However, it could also be argued that it is fair to ask a significant change of Eastern Christians, as they would be simply making the same substantial changes the various Western Churches have already made in 1582 (when the Catholic Church first adopted the Gregorian calendar) and subsequent years so as to bring the calendar and Easter more in line with the seasons.2008â2009 proposals
In 2008 and 2009, there was a new attempt to reach a consensus on a unified date on the part of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant leaders.WEB, New attempt to achieve a common date for Easter, Sandri, Luigi, Ekklesia, 6 December 2008, 2016-01-24,weblink WEB, Hope for a common date for Easter affirmed again, Ekklesia, 29 May 2009, 2016-01-24,weblink This effort largely relies on earlier work carried out during the 1997 Aleppo conference.WEB,weblink Ecumenical Christians Look Forward to Shared Easter Dates, Christianpost.com, 1 June 2009, Aaron J. Leichman, 2016-01-24, It was organized by academics working at the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of Lviv University.WEB, Hopes rise for East-West common Easter, CathNews, 29 May 2009, 2016-01-24,weblink February 9, 2013, dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130209094946weblink">weblink Part of this attempt was reportedly influenced by ecumenical efforts in Syria and Lebanon, where the Greek-Melkite Church has played an important role in improving ties with the Orthodox.WEB,weblink 1982 petition for a unified Easter date, WEB, Christians eye common date for Easter, Spero News, 8 December 2008, 2016-01-24,weblink 2016-01-30,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160130144048weblink">weblink dead, There is also a series of apparition phenomena known as Our Lady of Soufanieh that has urged for a common date of Easter.WEB,weblink Petition for a Common date of Easter,2014+ proposals
{{anchor|2014-2016 proposals}}In May 2015, on the anniversary of the meeting between himself and Pope Francis, Coptic Pope Tawadros II wrote a letter to Pope Francis asking for him to consider making renewed effort at a unified date for Easter.NEWS, Will Pope Francis change the date of Easter?, Catholic News Agency, 19 June 2015,weblink 21 June 2015, In response, on 12 June 2015, Catholic Pope Francis remarked to the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services 3rd World Retreat of Priests at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome that "we have to come to an agreement" for a common date on Easter. {{Interlanguage link multi|Lucetta Scaraffia|it}}, a historian, writing in the Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, said the Pope is offering this initiative to change the date of Easter "as a gift of unity with the other Christian churches" adding that a common date for Easter would encourage "reconciliation between the Christian churches and ... a sort of making sense out of the calendar". A week later Aphrem II, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, met with Pope Francis and noted that the celebration of Easter "on two different dates is a source of great discomfort and weakens the common witness of the church in the world."NEWS, Ieraci, Laura, June 19, 2015, Pope, Orthodox patriarch express commitment for unity, National Catholic Reporter,weblink 16 January 2016, In January 2016, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, announced that he on behalf of the Anglican Communion had joined discussions with Catholic, Coptic, and Orthodox representatives over a fixed date for Easter, and that he hoped it would happen within the next 5â10 years.NEWS, Archbishop Justin Welby hopes for fixed Easter date, BBC News, 15 January 2016,weblink 2016-01-16, Welby has suggested that Easter be fixed on either the second or third Sunday of April, relative to the Gregorian calendar.WEB, Easter date to be fixed 'within next 5 to 10 years', Bingham, John, Jamieson, Sophie, The Telegraph, 16 January 2016, 2016-01-24,weblink He said that Easter should most likely be fixed for the second or third Sunday of April, This proposal remains to be approved, especially by Eastern churches, which currently determine Easter using the Julian calendar.More recent statements by the Vatican and Orthodox churchesCatholic News Agency (CNA), 2021-03-12: Vatican cardinal supports common Easter date for Catholics, Orthodox state the goal to achieve consensus by 2025, just in time for the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, but without publishing any specific plans or who would adopt which changes. The Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches has arranged conferences to mark the event.On November 10, 2022, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I stated that both the Orthodox and Catholic sides have a good intention to finally establish a common date for the celebration of Easter - Christ's Resurrection before the celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea which took place in 325, however, it is too early to talk about details.WEB, 2022-11-12, Catholic, Orthodox Christians mull common date for celebrating Easter - Bartholomew,weblink 2024-02-10, www.ukrinform.net, en, On 2024 he again called on "Western and Eastern Christians to celebrate Easter on the same date, starting from 2025".WEB, Ecumenical Patriarch considers agreement on 2025 Easter date possible,weblink 2024-04-03, english.katholisch.de, de, According to international standards, Easter Sunday ends the week containing Good Friday and the week of the second Sunday in April has the ordinal number 14 or 15 (dominical letters D/DC, E/ED, F/FE and GF, i.e. 46.25% of years), hence the third Sunday is one respective week later. There currently is no public proposal under discussion that used a fixed week of the year for Easter and dependent feasts. The second Sunday in April is usually the 15th Sunday of the year (except for dominical letter G, 10.75%), which is almost always also the Sunday after the second Saturday in April (except for dominical letter AG, 3.75%).{{Table of dates of Easter|format=dmy|min=2024|max=2040}}See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}External links
- WEB,weblink 2007-01-31, Frequently asked questions about the date of Easter, World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission,
- {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000304132803weblink |date=March 4, 2000 |title=Notes on calculating Orthodox Pascha ("Easter") }}
- An Orthodox article arguing for preservation of the current method of calculating the date of Pascha
- The Date of Easter: Science offers solution to ancient religious problem
- A common date for Easter World Council of Churches, Aleppo, 1997
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